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Offered the fifth-year safety after the Vikings' 31-21 defeat of Green Bay: "For a lot of people, this is the Super Bowl in this state."
And therein seems to lie the problem. Beating the Packers in the friendly confines of Metrodome is not the equivalent of winning the Super Bowl. In no way, shape or form have the Vikings accomplished anything in Week 11 except improve to 3-7 and, temporarily, move out of a last-place tie in the NFC North. Chicago, which is 2-7, plays tonight.
But Chavous wasn't the only one.
"You at least have to enjoy this a little bit, even if you are 3-7," Vikings' coach Mike Tice said.
To be fair, though, minutes earlier Tice had said, "We're still a 3-7 football team. Certainly this doesn't cure anything."
Not even close.
To the contrary, it seems beating the Packers actually acts as a misdiagnosis to the sickness that is the Vikings' ailing season.
Purple "faithful" seem to think beating Green Bay in the middle of an otherwise nauseous season will have the same effect as Prozac, the wonder drug that supposedly cures all ills.
In reality - reality being a place the Packers seem to avoid like the plague on trips to the Gopher State - the Vikings beating the Packers in Minnesota adds to the facade that the Vikings are anything but a sub-.500 team in 2002.
In the victory, the Vikings still managed four more fumbles, losing one, bringing their season total to 26 fumbles, 13 lost.
A busy officiating crew penalized Minnesota 12 times for 105 yards. But the defense did intercept Favre three times, two by linebacker Greg Biekert, and easily could have picked him off at least three other times.
And maybe most importantly, Daunte Culpepper played much better after being benched for first time in his career last week in a loss to the New York Giants in favor of Todd Bouman.
Like the other 64,153 people at Metrodome on Sunday, I was in awe of the ease in which Minnesota took the opening kickoff and went 79 yards on five plays. Culpepper completed all three passes on the drive for 62 yards after rookie wide receiver Kelly Campbell started the drive with a reverse around the left end for 11 yards.
The drive took just 2 minutes, 28 seconds, and looked like the aggressive Vikings of 1998, a team that looked downfield early and often. Randy Moss scored on a 24-yard reception, the 25th of his career from Culpepper. What's more, this was all done with a no-huddle offense.
"I felt that would give the quarterback some rhythm," Tice said. "I felt we could tire their defensive front out. I thought this could pay dividends in the end of the game. We got some good drives out of it so I think it helped the quarterback gain some confidence."
Just minutes later, Culpepper hit D'Wayne Bates on an 18-yard pass for a 14-0 Minnesota lead, and you had that feeling Brett Favre's now legendary winning percentage at the Metrodome - which would be more aptly dubbed a losing percentage - was going to dip even lower.
He's now 2-9 at Metrodome.
"At some point before I retire, I would like to win another one in this building," Favre said.
And the Vikings would like to win a Super Bowl before Moss retires. Strike that: The Vikings would like to win a Super Bowl any time before one of George W. Bush's daughters become the next Bush for President.
But, like Bush's daughters, the Vikings will continue being an embarrassment until they take the rest of the season as seriously as they do the Packers.
Minnesota needs to quit letting opposing players such as unknown commodities Jim Miller (Bears), Chad Pennington (Jets) and Lamar Smith (Dolphins) have career days against them. First, the Vikings need to treat each week of practice the way they treat the week in preparation for Green Bay.
Tice talked about how each Vikings coach and player worked this week to improve on one thing each day. When put that way, improving doesn't sound so complicated.
Hopefully, Culpepper's goal was simply to take better care of the football. And hopefully, everyone else's was to realize one win over a bunch of cheeseheads does not a season make.
Or a Super Bowl ring equal.
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Riley Worth can be reached at (608)-782-9710, Ext. 315, or at worth.rile@students.uwlax.edu.
